Every day I receive multiple phone calls from business owners throughout Australia who are searching for the Rosetta Stone that deciphers how to get on the first page of Google. Some business owners are willing to pay for this secret to search engine optimisation, and pay handsomely. While some simply want (nay, expect) me to divulge all I know over the phone as if I were a free public resource with nothing better to do with my time than download the 15+ years of study I’ve done in the field, without getting any remuneration in return. But be these callers genuine inbound SEO leads for my company or be they the quintessential in-bound ‘tyre kicker’ (every industry gets them, even SEO!), they are all calling because they understand the innate impact a Google first page listing can have on their business.

Or do they?

How Valuable is the 1st Page of Google?

If Google were Monopoly, then getting on the first page would be like landing on Mayfair or Park Lane, because it’s far and away the most valuable real estate you can get and everyone wants it. You know this to be true as well as I do, because we all of us realise that only a tiny percentage of people (statistically speaking) will ever go past the first page of a Google search. But just how valuable is the first page of Google exactly? And is it really worth spending your hard-earned money hiring SEO North Sydney & Web Design to get your website there?

To answer that, let’s agree that if you’re not on page one of your relevant Google search, your website is practically invisible. Let’s further agree that every day you’re not on the first page of Google, your competitors (who no doubt are on page 1) get all the business that should be going to you. 

Now, given the above two points, let’s close off the syllogism with the conclusion that, as the vast majority of all consumers in the 21st-century search for what they want and where they want it, online (rather than in traditional media), it is very likely that the companies that are not on the first page will seriously lag behind their competitors until they learn to harness the power of the world’s single largest lead generation tool (Google) to drive inbound enquiries.

Still with me? Good. Because I’m about to give you some statistics to back up the above statements and to make your eye-balls spin back in your head like slot machines. As it’s not enough just to get on the first page of Google (though that’s impressive – and a vital first step), it’s WHERE on the first page you rank that’s really important. And this is the ongoing challenge that SEO companies face when you hire them.

To explain why this is so vital, we first have to understand the well-worn axiom that all sales is a numbers game. Because when it comes to internet search, the more people who click on your website’s listing in Google, the more people will end up calling you or buying whatever cool-aid you’re selling. Beyond the obvious though, how many people click on your listing is important because one of the factors Google weighs when working out where your website ranks, is your click-through rate. As a high organic click-through rate (CTR) is one of the best metrics for determining relevancy to the search string. And Google marries this relevancy with their ability to measure the quality of the content on the page your listing actually takes people to (via factors such as bounce rate, time on page, average session time, etc). And together with the machine learning SVM methodology employed via their Panda algorithm, Google takes all this information and gets a frighteningly accurate picture of just how good the content and web design on your website actually is.

The beauty in all this is that the better your site’s content, the higher your rankings in Google. The higher your rankings the better your click-through rate. The better your click through rate the more relevant your content must be. The more relevant your content, the higher your click-through rate. The better your click-through rate the higher your rankings. QED. In many ways this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and – if you’re lucky enough to be deemed by Google as worthy – a self-perpetuating one.

Google 1st Page Statistics

US-based search targeted advertising and research company ‘Chitika’ might get zero out of ten for their unfortunate choice of business names, but they get ten out of ten for their always excellent and wonderfully detailed SEO research. 

I first came across Chitika back in May 2010 when they did an insights study into the ‘Value of Google Results Positioning’, an eye-opening report into how important 1st-page results were when advertising online. But in the fast-paced world of the internet, data from 2010 is as relevant today as that acid wash denim jacket you’ve got stashed in the back of your wardrobe. Consequently, in 2013 Chitika decided to update their research in the subject to quantify what each spot on a Google results page is actually worth in terms of organic traffic from Google, today.

SEO Research Methodology

To quantify their research, Chitika performed a taxonomy of tens of millions of online ad impressions in which the user was referred to a specified landing page via an organic Google search. From the referring Google URL, Chitika were able to determine the exact SERP (Search Engine Ranking Position) the query came from, and measure what percentage of Google traffic comes from each position in the search results page. The data range for this particular research was extracted between May 21st to May 27th, 2013.

SEO Research Sample Size

Despite what your ex-girlfriend assured you in the bedroom (no doubt before she left you for a pro-football player named Tripod), size actually is important. Consequently, to ensure the results of their 2013 research gave an accurate representation of Google 1st page results as a whole, Chitika went big and extracted their 2013 SEO data from approximately 300,000,000 U.S. and Canadian impressions, as measured by page views (rather than unique visitors).

Note: while these results didn’t include Australian internet users, this 2013 study is by far the most in-depth I’ve come across, and it’s not rocket science to work out that the data as expressed in this report will also hold true for Google.com.au as well as for Google.com.

SEO Research Results and Conclusions

The first thing that Chitika discovered from their 2013 SEO study was that, when measured as a percentile, the traffic for each SERP was actually very similar to their 2010 results, with 32% of clicks coming from the website in the first position in the Google search, compared to 17% for websites in the second position.

Think about that for a minute. Sales is a numbers game, and the more clicks you get, the more people buy. And this data categorically proves that the difference in traffic between being number one in a Google first page search and number two is almost 100%.

Yup, you read that correctly. Getting SERP one in Google gets you approximately twice the clicks as getting SERP two. And twice the clicks means twice the calls. Twice the calls mean twice the sales. Twice the sales mean double the profits. So if you’re reading this and wondering whether or not to sign up for an SEO package with SEO North Sydney, start thinking about how much business you’d make if the visitors to your website doubled? How much business you’d make if your phone calls doubled. Because these are the margins available to whoever has the wherewithal to go after them.

But enough with the sales pitch. Let’s stick to the research and let the facts do the talking. Further to this I’ve posted the Chitika SEO results below for your edification. But the other salient takeaway from this survey that’s worth referencing is what we as business owners intuitively know anyway, and that is if you’re not on the first page of your relevant Google search at all, then your website is practically invisible because the first page of Google generates a whopping 92% of all traffic. And heaven forbid you’re even further back than page 2, because traffic drops a further 78% between pages 2 and 3, and another 58% between pages 3 and 4. Though by that stage there’s probably only one person still searching anyway, so…

SEO RESEARCH – RESULTS OVERVIEW:

• #1 in a Google search gets 32% of all the clicks.
• #2 in a Google search gets 17% of all the clicks.
• #3 in a Google search gets 11% of all the clicks.
• 92 out of every 100 people who search on the internet do not go past the first page of their Google search.

CONTACT SEO NORTH SYDNEY TODAY!

Every day you delay is allowing your competitors to get all the business that should rightfully go to you…

Percentage of Traffic by Google Results Position.

Google First Page Traffic Percentage – Statistics.

Percentage of Google Traffic by Results Page.

Want to master SEO? Then book in yourself or your staff for some SEO Training Sydney today! Sydney’s #1 SEO Trainer Brian M Logan shows you everything you need to get your company website on the first page of Google. SEO Training can be in-house (we come to you) or classroom based (you come to us).

Or you can always call us on 0425 204 887 if you want to leave your SEO Sydney requirements to the experts. Your website’s 1st Page of Google results is guaranteed in writing in the contract.

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